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A new engine!

Started by CraigStern, June 05, 2016, 05:39:11 PM

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CraigStern

-- characters now have a baseClass attribute that always contains the unpromoted version of whatever class they are (e.g. a character that begins as a Swordsman will always have a base class of Swordsman no matter what it promotes into). The associated string stat can now be accessed in dialogue actions as Base Class.

-- Finished coding the method for choosing skills a character can teach another character! Skills can now have the attributes raceReq and classReq attached to them, each imposing a race or base class requirement (respectively) in order for a character to teach another character that skill. For example, the skill Dive has a raceReq of Spriggat (only spriggats can learn it), whereas the skill Fire Breath 2 has a classReq of Red Spriggat (spriggats only, but Frost Spriggats, Dark Spriggats, and Golden Spriggats won't be able to learn this one).

Aside from race and class restrictions, there are three other restrictions on which skills a character can be taught: (1) the character must have a Psy above 0 to learn a skill if the skill has a psyDmgFactor above 0; (2) if the skill has a dependsUpon, the character must have an identically named mastery in order to learn it; and (3) the character cannot possess the skill already.

CraigStern

-- got the first new musical track ("Barracks", a lovely classical guitar piece courtesy of Ryan Richko) in the game and working!

-- wrote a bunch of individualized dialogue for when characters teach a friend a new skill or proficiency.

-- characters are now generated with said dialogue.

-- wrote a new step-wise approach to character generation that permits fast generation of a half-dozen potential recruits at a time, each containing with only part of the data that would be present in a complete character--and then, upon actually recruiting one, the game completes the character generation process for that recruit.

CraigStern

-- mousing over a recruit's portrait now provides a variety of information about him or her; clicking the character now adds them to your roster of characters.

-- fixed a few remaining issues with the two-phase character generation process.

CraigStern

-- nighttime actions can now directly impact a character's experience, health, and energy levels. (The Practice action, for example, gains a character experience; the Rest action regains health and energy.)

CraigStern

-- the game now procedurally generates a recruitment price for new recruits based on an evaluation of their stats at the time of recruitment, with stats weighted differently based upon their class.

-- boosted the baseline frequency with which characters choose to talk to one another in the evenings.

-- in order to cut down on the potential for personality repetition, the game now tracks the 12 most recent personality attributes and life skills used in generating characters you've hired, and deliberately avoids using them when generating additional characters.

CraigStern

-- the game now tracks your current aura.

-- the game now deducts from your current aura when you recruit a character, and plays a coin jingle sound effect...or, if you lack the funds, it simply plays an "error" noise.

CraigStern

-- weapons are now generated with a "max uses" stat; weapons that have seen a lot of use can theoretically be repaired back up that level.

-- the Repair Weapons nighttime action now repairs the group's weapons by a fixed amount (but not beyond any given weapon's max uses).

-- nighttime actions can now impact the morale of every single character in the group. These effects can be reversed for characters with certain personality traits, depending on the type of action involved. (Serious and Sensitive characters, for example, tend not to enjoy the more mockery-focused antics of Jokester characters.)

CraigStern

Lots more artist feedback; received final drafts of all 62 "unique character" portraits with alternate eyes and mouths for various facial expressions.

-- fixed an error in the code that was causing character portraits to show up with the wrong outfit palette in nighttime dialogue.

-- reworked character approach descriptions so that they flow together more naturally with generated dialogue in non-greeting conversations.

CraigStern

Mostly spent the day fixing bugs!

-- the Practice nighttime activity now causes characters to actually gain experience.

CraigStern

Playtesting Saturday afternoon revealed some bugs and playability issues in the game that I've taken today to fix:

-- in battle, pressing the space bar now shifts the camera to the next character onscreen and automatically selects them.

-- fixed issue in battle wherein the actions menu would remain onscreen and clickable when in the character screen or level-up screen.

-- fixed a bug that was causing battles to freeze whenever a combat bark was triggered.

-- tweaked Bronze Golem character generation values to give them some degree of starting resistance to pierce and slash, and to give them some minimum growths in those area.

-- reworked the character generation script to untether it from the debug "character generator" screen, put recruitment functions into a separate script.

-- fixed an annoying UI bug on the recruitment screen.

-- screen-edge panning in battle now occurs only when the mouse is very, very close to the edge of the screen.

-- fixed an issue in which character portraits detected via the AddSpeakerPortrait action didn't palette swap.

-- fixed an issue where barudit and golem sprites didn't palette swap correctly.

CraigStern

-- wrote a bunch of new secret and skill-teaching lines.

-- the game now saves the color that a character most recently spawned with in combat, to be used as their default portrait color out of combat.

-- AddPortrait now has an optional 7th parameter: facial expression. (See here.)

CraigStern

-- implemented a -1 to morale "mess penalty" that hits the entire group at the end of the night if no one cleans around camp.

CraigStern

-- implemented remaining attack bonus / penalty morale effects.

-- implemented a button that will give you a report of your group's current morale levels and the effects they have.

CraigStern

Some bug fixes:

-- if an AI-controlled character blunders into a trap that causes Stunned or Frozen status, the AI now stops the character's turn and moves to the next character instead of just pushing on ahead.

-- fixed a bug that was causing the game to freeze after delivery of a combat bark.

CraigStern

-- redid the options menu for combat.

-- adjusted the relative probabilities of certain classes being generated. Axefighter, bowman, swordsman, and spearman are now more likely to be generated among physical human classes; psy healer is much more likely to be generated among psy-focused human classes. All other human classes are, in turn, somewhat rarer as a result.

-- added the Throw Voice skill to the game (behaves like a ranged Feint--known by Ventriloquist characters)